Proposed uses and advantages for high current, high transition temperature superconductors have not been realized, given that commercially usable superconductor materials in bulk form (including thick film) have to date been generally unavailable. Superconductor refers here and in the following description to the class of ceramic superconductors containing copper oxides or other oxides and having superconductivity transition temperatures (T.sub.c) generally above the liquid nitrogen boiling temperature of 77.degree. K. Critical currents of greater than 10.sup.4 A/cm.sup.2 at magnetic fields of 10T are considered necessary for practical, current carrying applications. Although small amounts or segments of superconductor material with such an enhanced critical current carrying capability have been fabricated, no proven method exists for repeatably or controllably fabricating a bulk superconductor material with such high critical current carrying properties at operating temperatures of 77.degree. K.
Previously, superconductors with high critical currents could be produced only in expitaxial thin films which are unsuitable for bulk current carrying applications, single crystals, which are too expensive and impractical for applications, or in thick films by a melt-textured growth process. Thick film superconductors however, cannot be made a practical thickness without loss of grain orientation.
The prior art has attempted to resolve this problem by aligning the crystals which form the superconductor material along one axis, which orients the crystals with their high-current carrying a-b planes (FIG. 1) in parallel and in the direction of preferred current flow as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,288,398 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,842,704. Single axis alignment has been achieved by making use of a single anisotropic property of the crystal such as shape, deformability or magnetic field orientation.
Although it has been shown that crystalline grains of superconductor material such as YBa.sub.2 Cu.sub.3 O.sub.7-.delta. (YBCO) can be aligned in a strong magnetic field such that the crystals magnetic moment lies along the field, it has been observed that for the YBCO compound, this alignment is along the c axis which is the same axial alignment as achieved by relying on other anisotropic properties of the crystal such as shape or plastic deformability. Although use of such a single anisotropy alignment results in some increase in critical current carrying capability, evidence has suggested that misorientation of the crystals within the conducting plane with respect to each other, that is the lack of alignment of these crystals with respect to a second crystal axis perpendicular to the first axis, results in reduced critical currents. See Critical Current Enhancement In Field Oriented YBa.sub.2 Cu.sub.3 O.sub.7, Chen et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 55(3), 17, July 1989. Accordingly, what is needed is a means for performing multi-axis alignment of the superconductor crystals utilizing two anisotropic properties of the crystals which are perpendicular to one another.